1. Bryophytes of Madagascar
1.1. Checklist of the bryophytes of Madagascar
As of December 2023, the known bryoflora of Madagascar comprises 1215 accepted names: 1045 species and 170 infraspecific taxa (Table 2). Based on the most recent checklist of bryophytes, recent inventories, and literature the moss flora consists of 60 families, 189 genera, and 767 species and infraspecific taxa. Liverworts comprise 32 families, 95 genera, and 443 species and infraspecific taxa. Hornworts are represented by only two families, four genera, and five species and, as in much of the world, are the most poorly documented group. Species richness is dominated by mosses, reflecting the global difference in diversity between the three groups. Bryophytes represent 9% of the land plant flora (i.e. bryophytes + tracheophytes) of Madagascar. The bryoflora of Madagascar displays a substantial level of endemism at the species level with 33.4% of mosses and 17.4% of liverworts restricted to the island.
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1.2. Systematic and phylogenomic
Madagascar is a global biodiversity hotspot, with some of the highest global levels of diversity and endemism. For instance, 1215 species of bryophytes has been reported for Madagascar. Although data are preliminary, bryophytes are clearly abundant and ecologically important in this habitat. However, they remain very poorly known, with perhaps less than 50% of the likely total diversity described. Previous survey of bryophytes, conducted in the Marojejy National Park, yielded records 265 bryophytes species, and resulted in the additions of 40 news species for Madagascar. Another study on herbarium materials from PC, MO, TAN and EGR herbariums resulted in the additions of 31 new species for Madagascar and 10 new species for sciences. Documenting the remaining undescribed diversity is crucial for biodiversity monitoring, extinction risk assessment, conservation measures planning. Clearly there is a great need for further documentation of the bryophyte flora for this globally unique island.
The main bottleneck in studying bryophyte is to identify the many bryophyte species from the Sub-Saharan Africa. This is due to the lack of taxonomic research and lack of specialist. To this end we propose this new research program to break new ground and fill the vast gaps in bryological taxonomy research. In addition to document the unique diversity of a poorly studied group, this proposed research project aims at providing an innovative method to advance and accelerate the process of bryophyte identification, species discovery and species classification. (1) Describe bryophytes diversity, (2) conduct taxonomic revision and species description and (3) develop an automated bryophytes identification platform. The outcome of this project is the production of taxonomic outputs such as checklists of bryophytes where biodiversity is most threatened, identification keys, and an automated platform to identify specimens.
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Objectives
- Describe bryophytes diversity: we will conduct more bryophytes inventories where biodiversity is most threatened. Collections are essential to the processes of discovering, describing and conserving biodiversity.
- Conduct taxonomic revision and species description: As the Malagasy flora is understudied, many species are likely to be misidentified or currently in need of taxonomic revision.
- Develop an automated bryophytes identification platform: We will develop an innovative technique to accelerate bryophytes identification, description and to speed up species discovery using Machine Learning (ML). In the recent years, ML has become a very effective tool for object identification. ML has great potential to drive scientific discovery by harvesting data from images of herbarium specimens.
